Cotswold Outdoor Brand Guidelines: A 1974 Water-Park Garage, A.S.Adventure & Yonderland

Camping accessories, a garage and the Cotswold lakes.

Cotswold Outdoor began in 1974 in the Cotswolds. English Wikipedia says the founders sold basic camping accessories from a garage beside the Cotswold Water Park, in the Cotswolds. grough, the British outdoor magazine, wrote in November 2015 that the business “was formed in a single outbuilding more than 40 years ago,” and in May 2019 that it “began trading in 1974, selling camping equipment.” The company’s own about page now speaks of “50 years of experience” and marked the half-century with a lookbook of kit from its early years to the present.

The chain grew into a national one before it left British hands. In 2000 it was bought by A.S.Adventure, the Belgian outdoor retailer that Emiel Lathouwers opened in Schoten, near Antwerp, in 1995, according to English Wikipedia, which cites the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. The Belgian group then changed owners twice. English Wikipedia says the London private-equity firm Lion Capital bought it in 2007, and grough reported that the Paris-based investor PAI Partners bought it from Lion Capital in February 2015.

By November 2015 Cotswold Outdoor had 72 shops across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, grough reported. They sell clothing, footwear and equipment for walking, camping and climbing, much of it from outside brands; in September 2026 Retail Gazette named Mountain Equipment, Rab, Merrell and Scarpa among the brands with exclusive ranges in its stores.

Snow+Rock, a single company and a CVA.

In 2015 the Belgian group also bought the Snow & Rock Group, made up of the Snow+Rock ski and mountaineering shops, the Cycle Surgery bike shops and the Runners Need running shops. In November that year the four British chains were combined in a single company, Outdoor and Cycle Concepts, grough reported, adding that Snow & Rock had opened its first shop on Kensington High Street in London in 1982. Runners Need dated from the same year, the magazine said, while Cycle Surgery had started in Islington in 1992 as a local repair shop and joined Snow & Rock in 2007.

The combined business ran into trouble at the end of the decade. In May 2019 its creditors approved a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), backed by more than 97 per cent of unsecured creditors, grough and Retail Gazette reported. The company, then based in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, ran 120 stores and sought lower rents at 50 of them. It closed four shops, among them the Cotswold Outdoor branches in Peterborough and Ipswich, and continued to trade under the control of its directors, Retail Gazette said. At the time, grough traced its ownership through Retail Concepts NV and a Dutch cooperative to PAI Partners. The CVA came with a turnaround plan after the chief executive resigned in March 2019: Retail Gazette listed a new UK chief executive, cost reductions and changes to the loyalty scheme, and staff affected by the closures were offered the chance to apply for other posts within the group.

The parent group’s finances were reworked two years later. In May 2021 RetailDetail reported a debt restructuring under which a group of banks took about 45 per cent of the shares, while PAI and management kept 55 per cent. The holding company was renamed Yonderland; the name applied to the holding company only, not to the shops. In February 2026 RetailDetail, citing the Belgian business daily De Tijd, reported that PAI and management had bought out the banks, with PAI regaining full control and management taking a “substantial” minority stake. In July 2026 the same title listed Yonderland’s chains as A.S.Adventure and Juttu in Belgium, Bever in the Netherlands and Cotswold Outdoor in the United Kingdom.

How outdoor retailers present themselves.

Outdoor, camping and ski retailers sell other companies’ boots, tents and jackets alongside ranges of their own, so much of their identity lives in the shop rather than the product. Trade press coverage of the British chains returns to the same few things: the size and setting of a store, the specialist departments inside it, and the services offered at the counter, such as boot and rucksack fitting or a cycle workshop.

Store format is the clearest divide. In its 2017 review of a merger in the sector, the Competition and Markets Authority described one group of chains trading from smaller, typically high-street shops and another from larger stores, typically out of town, able to carry a broader range. Newer openings mix the two ideas: shops that put two or three of a group’s fascias under one roof, smaller “express” formats with in-store kiosks for the full range, and concessions run by specialist cycling, fishing or equestrian businesses inside a larger store.

Names carry much of the work. Several chains in this guide are named after a place or an activity rather than a founder, and several sit inside larger groups owned by listed retailers or private-equity firms, while the shopfront name stays the same. Campaigns can be timed to the season: one chain’s 2026 autumn and winter campaign came with a floor refresh across all its stores, trade press reported.

This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — where it began, who has owned it and when, and how its stores are laid out — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

The oldest chain gives the group its name.

In 2025 the British company took the name of its oldest chain. Companies House records cited by English Wikipedia list it as Outdoor and Cycle Concepts Limited from 2015 and as Cotswold Outdoor Group Limited from 2025. English Wikipedia now gives its headquarters as Swindon, in Wiltshire.

The stores have been arranged to carry more than one name. In April 2025 TheIndustry.fashion reported an 8,000 sq ft store at the Merry Hill shopping centre in Brierley Hill, in the West Midlands, combining Cotswold Outdoor with its sister brands Runners Need and Snow + Rock, with clothing, footwear and accessories for walking, running and snow sports on the centre’s upper level, close to its leisure quarter. The format puts three shopfront names into a single unit. The National Trust describes Cotswold Outdoor as its exclusive walking partner, a partnership it dates to 2015; the Trust says the chain also supports its walking programmes and helps train walk leaders at its places.

The chain’s most recent campaign turned to animals. In September 2026 Retail Gazette reported that “We speak outdoors” showcased animals that call the outdoors home, was devised with Vector Media and the creative studio Ourselves, and came with a floor refresh across all its stores to highlight the autumn and winter lines.

For a design guide, Cotswold Outdoor shows how a shop named after a landscape can keep that name through Belgian, private-equity and holding-company ownership, and end up naming the group itself. Compare Snow+Rock, its sister chain since 2015, and Go Outdoors, another British outdoor chain with a very different store format. For this guide we use moss green, limestone and a bracken orange with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Cotswold Outdoor’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.